30. Iditarod racer : DOG SLED. We have these races in Minnesota. All you need is snow, a sled, and a few Huskies.

32. Colo. setting : MST.
I think John Denver kept his watch set to this time no matter where he
was. I wonder if he fell in love with Colorado because of his last name,
or if he changed to that name like some personalities do. Did you know
he got his start with the Chad Mitchell Trio?

42. Waits in traffic : IDLES. They say not to idle your car to warm it up in cold weather.

43. Support during exercise : SPOT. I may have clued Dick and Jane's doggie.

45. Give no stars to : PAN

46. Asian noodle dish : PAD THAI. I will take C.C.'s word for this

48. One step __ time : AT A

50. Govt. aid for the disabled : SSI. Okay, but I am not disabled but I get a few bucks every month just for being old.

57. Arab bigwig : EMIR
- Sounds like the freshman U of Minn basketball star Mr. Coffey who you
will hear about as time goes on and the Big 10 (+4) gets going.

59. Wild speech : RANT

60. GM's Mary Barra, for one : CEO

65. It comes before one : NOON

66. Big name in beauty products : ULTA. Ulta also describes your thought when you see the price.

67. Demi of "A Few Good Men" : MOORE. She could handle the truth.

68. Give for a while : LEND. Sometimes $$$, sometimes just your ears

69. December number : NOEL. Maybe someone already constructed a Christmas puzzle with words that do not contain the letter "L".

70. "None for me, thanks" : I PASS. "What do you do when the driver in the car in front of you is texting and going too slow?

Down:

1. On the defensive : AT BAY

2. Harsh Athenian lawmaker : DRACO

3. "Roots" writer : HALEY. Alex - a tremendous story and TV series that kept folks captivated for weeks in the seventies.

4. It may be crude : OIL. Great for most of us, the price has dropped to reasonable. Problems for North Dakota for profits from the sand.

5. Sun blockers : CLOUDS. Cloudy, the sky is gray and white and Cloudy. Sometimes I think its hanging down on me. (Simon and Garfunkel)

6. A year in Provence : ANNEE, Another one of those words.

7. Knock on : RAP AT

8. Busy pro in tax season : CPA. Not looking forward to tax time.

9. Doesn't go along : SAYS NO. Two words I get it, but could also be a name of a video game some day.

10. Steinbeck's "East of __" : EDEN. Why not Genie "Barbara"

11. Twins legend who was the first DH to hit a home run : TONY OLIVA.
My words to the bridge of the famous song "Talkin' Baseball" by Terry
Cashman. - "Now my old friend Brandy, he loved to watch the Killer clout
them out. And my pals from the alley, would go to see Versalles, and
me, I always lived Tony O. Where did they go?" My parody version was
titles "Zoilo, Tony and the Brew".

Boomer and Oliva

12. Director's shout : CUT. Speaking of Mr. Oliva, this could also be the catcher's shout on his throw coming in from right field.

13. Appt. book slots : HRs. Or a baseball stat for Tony. I think he hit a couple hundred in his career.

25. Home of most of Sawtooth National Forest : IDAHO.
Also huge potato farms. Funny how states get a reputation for
vegetables. All Minnesota gets a rep for is lakes and frozen tundra.

27. Become established : SET IN

28. Some flowery works : ODES

31. Try to hit, as a mosquito : SLAP AT.
Speaking of a rep for Minnesota - how about a Hockey puck? Paul Newman
was great in "Slapshot" and the Hansons were actually the Carlson
brothers from the land of 10,000 lakes.

32. King who turned his daughter into gold : MIDAS. They made their name with mufflers but the prices are a little high.

33. Persevere : SOLDIER ON

35. Vision-correcting surgery : LASIK

36. Computer support? : LAP. Tablet computer.

38. Big shots : VIPs

39. Rubbish holder : ASH BIN. Also known as a Dumpster. But we'll call the one behind the White House a Trumpster

44. Contaminate : TAINT. Hillbillies also may use this as slang for "That A'int".

52. Hot under the collar : IRATE. Or I rate this puzzle 97 out of 100 !

53. Birth-related : NATAL.
Remember Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta "Pirates of Penzance" when the
man's natal day was February 29th so although he was an adult, he sang
he was a little boy of five. It was a paradox.

54. Former #1 LPGA golfer Lorena : OCHOA. One of my favorites. We saw her at the Women's US Open at Interlachen Country Club a few years ago.

55. Wolfish stares : LEERS

56. Veinlike deposits : LODES

58. Look after : MIND. When sometimes we were snoopy kids the retort was "Mind your own business".

44 comments:

Boomer-what an enjoyable expo. Thanks.CC, I love working your puzzles. Even when they are difficult, I seem to be able to solve them. Thanks!We have SLEDDOG races in Montana, also. I haven't thought about SPOTters since I was in high school PE many years ago.

FIRbNTD (Finished It Right by No Ta-Da). Several WAGs scattered throughout that needed to be checked, but the only one that needed changing was AhH to AAH, where I hadn't figured out the perp yet.The theme escaped me. I saw the first two were BALLOON and YO-YO, so figured the theme was "things to play with"; and the next one, BIKINI, confirmed it!

{B, B+, C+, B-.}

STRINGS ATTACHED------- --------Above its STRING, a BALLOON joy brings!Below its STRING, a YO-YO swings!With STINGS 'cross its middleA VIOLA can fiddle!BIKINIS don't have them, they are the STRINGS!

Heart, in an effort to show ELITE class,SET IN a bridge game for some organ brass.The lungs were pairedIn opposite chairs,But each turn the DOUR colon said, "I PASS".

The clear blue waters of a coral ATOLLFar from the nearest shopping mall!There's little impedin'This island EDEN --If it didn't have humans, then nothing at-all!

TONY was a poet who, when book sales SLOWED,Gambled, investing in mining LODES.No reason nor rhymeinfluenced his MIND On which would PAN out -- he was playing the ODES!

A few unknowns: ANNEE, DRACO, TATAMI. DRACO makes sense as the root of DRACONIAN, I guess, but didn't know the word. OOH:AAH; LASIC:LASIK. A bit embarrassed to say I needed three cheats to get 'er done. Overall, fun CW, thanx, CC! Nice write-up, thanx, Boomer! Thanx as always for the grins, Owen!

You were in fine form this morning, Boomer! ULTA just looked wrong. NOne gave way to NOON and ASH can to ASH BIN, but otherwise it was a smooth, quick solve. Thanks, C.C.

I think I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. The ASH BIN (dumpster) at the nearby county park has a sign out front: "Dumpster for seniors only"

Boomer, I do remember when John Denver joined the Chad Mitchell Trio. Ironically, he replaced Chad Mitchell. The first album with Denver listed the artists as "The Mitchell Trio" and was titled That's The Way It's Gonna Be.

Minnesota is also well-known for Lutherans and Lake Woebegon, thanks to Garrison Keillor.

Great puzzle, C.C., lots of fun this morning! I loved so many of the clues, and I smiled as I realized the misdirection. Some of my favorites: Juice provider--Orange?, Colo Setting--Mts?, Computer support--FAQ? Ah, no. Loved seeing DOUR; it's a solid adjective. Thanks so much.

The North filled rapidly and when I got to 11D I sensed that this was a C.C. puzzle. Twins? Baseball? I didn't get the 'string' connection and actually had some difficulty finishing. But it wasn't too DRACONian; it was a Wednesday. Both 'How to Get Away With Murder' and VIOLA DAVIS ( had BETTE first) were complete unknowns and I had filled NONE instead of NOON as the clue that came before 'one'. I had to 'soldier on' to finally fill SOLDIER ON.

ANNEE, ULTA & TATAMI were other unknowns this am solved by perps.OwenKL- you don't play with the 'bikini'; it's just the container.

Henry Deutschendorf, aka John Denver, obviously didn't like authority. His pilot's license had been revoked and he was flying anyway.

1A: Translates to "to this". An ad hoc committee is formed to perform a specific task. Funny, in all my years in the business world where comittees were always being formed, I don't ever remember hearing that term; and crazy terms were always being thrown around. I learned the term from doing these crossword puzzles.

Great puzzle, CC. I had to save the left half of the theme answers until near the end. The reveal and BIKINI helped tremendously. Having the D, I quickly thought of DRACONIAN and so DRACO. TA DA.ULTA was new and OCHOA was buried so deeply I needed all perps for them.John Denver was born in Roswell, New Mexico, and was named Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. The state I associate with him is WV. I love his COUNTRY ROADS. "Almost heaven, West Virginia." is my favorite tourist state, but it is in such economic trouble I wouldn't want to live there. I also like Denver's Sunshine on the Water.Weekend Update is my favorite feature on SNL. Our gas prices are rising.I read East of Eden twice and saw the movie twice. Great!Time to SOLDIER on, one of my frequently used expressions.

Perfect puzzle for me - Several times I thought that I wasn't going to be able to finish, but just kept plugging away and got it all without help. I erased cUNY for SUNY, Geena DAVIS for VIOLA DAVIS, and reP for COP. Didn't know VIOLA DAVIS, but we may have encountered her here recently. Other unknowns were PAD THAI, Mary Barra, ANNEE and TATAMI.

Favorite today was OUTLET for juice provider. Least favorite was ANNEE for year in Provence. Don't know where Provence is; don't care to know.

Great write up Boomer. Thanks to both you and CC for a fun start to the day.

I feel like this is an all-star week, Bruce and Gail Monday, Bruce Tuesday, C.C. Wednesday...I like knowing the constructors, it gives me a good idea of how I will fare. C.C. did not disappoint with punny clues and baseball and food! Thank you to Boomer for the expose. Hands up for every mistake everyone else made!

For the Instagram people, you should follow Bikini the Pig and her friends. The guy has eight or so older dogs and the pot-belly Bikini. It's adorable.

@BigEasy: I had to read more about John Denver and you are correct, his license had been revoked for a year! He was flying a kit plane and the NTSB report stated he was trying to switch fuel tanks when he crashed into the bay. Very sad day for his fans.

I too am interested as to how everyone accesses the puzzle from their iPad. Finally got one for Christmas and it doesn't support uClick so no Mensa site...

Spent yesterday at a DIY mechanic shop with DH installing a new exhaust system on his little car. Neat set up - rent a bay by the hour and they supply the tools and a little help if you need it. I was the only female in the place and received many comments about how their wives would never come help them do anything. I toasted them all as soon as I got home!

We have family in town for the next 5 days. Two nephews, 6 and 8, brought their new puppy to visit Grandma. Should be a little crazy but I hope to stop in to say hi!

Had a little trouble parsing YOYO-DIETING, but OUTLET fixed that. Having at bar before AT BAY didn't help.SUNY - Good to see SUNY at Buffalo. BH and I attended graduate school there in the sixties. I think Misty attended there, too, a couple years after me.

Started in the SW and saw the clue indicating circles, so I opened the LA Times but didn't see any circles.

Threw in answers without checking the crosses. Should have went back to bed. Entered NONE for before one. MTN for Denver setting. CFOS before VIPS. ASH CAN before ASH BIN. OGLES before LEERS. SWAT AT before SLAP AT. PEAGUN before AIRGUN. IRKED before IRATE. BELT for SPOT. BUTCHER (Susan) for DOGSLED. ORO before OSO. Worst of all ? I keyed in IRIS for iris layer, but took that one out as fast as I keyed it in.

Was getting nowhere fast.

At that point, I decided to pause the game (online option) and brew a half pot of coffee. I came within a half wrist twsit of putting the coffee in the filter basket without the paper filter.

Got going again and rechecked all of my entries. Got it all done with no help, but my time BALLOONed to 28:40.

The coffee helped, but I don't think I'll be making any consequential decisions today.

This was such a fun CW so thank you C.C. - loved the theme and Boomer, your expo was delightful.Only a few unknowns : TONYOLIVIA ( nice pic, Boomer), TATAMI and BIKINIATOLL

A few stumbles : I also wanted orange for "juice provider" ( this was my favorite clue) and had lan for LAP and ash can for ASHBIN

I did know VIOLADAVIS right away. "How to Get Away With Murder" is one of my favorite shows and I've been a huge fan of her work since seeing her in "The Help"

Desper-otto, DRACO Malfoy was my first thought with 2D - a great reference to his personality :) His character along with many others were named for stars and constellations - Sirius, Andromeda, Scorpious, Regulus, Bellatrix to name a few.

Creative puzzle - at first I thought the theme was going to be about the beach since I had BALL and BIKINI but hadn't quite filled in the YOYO or VIOLA yet which blew that hypothesis.

SSI is just for people with disabilities over age 18 - regular Social Security starts at age 62+.

Thanks Boomer for filling in and CC for the puzzle!Daughter is still here from Seattle so I am putting off work for one more day!Will get to baking some of the cookies that the dough is chilling in the frig

Always delighted to see CC as the constructor because it means a clever theme, tricky (but fair) clues, fresh fill, and, most of all, an enjoyable solving experience. After filling in Balloon and Yoyo, my first thought was a Toy Theme but Bikini changed that thought to something to do with strings and, sure enough, the reveal confirmed it. I must admit, I missed seeing the asterisk for Viola so Boomer's expo was even more enlightening. I think my only w/o was Osa/Oso but I needed perps for Ulta and a few others.

Thanks, CC, for bringing some sunshine into an otherwise gloomy winter day and thanks, Boomer, for your witty and lively expo.

Tawnya, hope you are enjoying your respite from the academic grind and getting lots of catnaps in!

Musings-SLO/ULTA was right! File this under “Got ‘er done” and “Even blind squirrels find some acorns”-There is always just enough spice to make C.C.’s puzzle very tasty and coupled with Boomer’s wit, AAH!-The ARCS in my world-Leaving On A Jet Plane was a foot in the solo door for Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. -My car idles a little in heat or cold now that I can start it with my iPhone from anywhere-Add PAD THAI to the list of what I know only here-My friend who worked at SSI used Lysol on her desk this time of year for street people who literally came in out of the cold -Boomer, that texting driver passed me at 70mph yesterday-DRACO is a constellation that snakes between the Dippers-Needing a CPA for taxes is a sign that our system is too damned complicated!-I’ll bet many here have used these OUTLET devices-No matter who is president, this country will SOLDIER ON-My mother said, “Tend to your own knitting!” She never did!

I knew we were in for some fun when I saw it was a C.C. puzzle. Thanks (and also to Boomer for the fun exposition). Great photo with TONY.

Of course, I was looking for baseball and confidently filled in At Bat for AT BAY!Hand up for Swat At before SLAP AT, and None before NOON (clever misdirection).Olay became ULTA, an unknown to me.Annum became ANNEE when I realized that I needed French (from Provence) not Latin.I too like the word DOUR.

Hand-held cell phone/distracted driving fines up to $1000 in Canadian provinces do not seem to have reduced the number of drivers texting that I have seen (even like HuskerG on the highway!). Some suggest MADD should now stand for Mothers Against Distracted Driving.

And thank you, C.C., for another impressive puzzle! Good stuff! No problems as I'm familiar with ULTA, VIOLA DAVIS, also a huge fan since The Help, DRACO and ADHOC. Not familiar with TONYOLIVA but now I recall seeing that photo once before.

Good morning all,Double fun today! I continue to be amazed at your knowledge of English phrases, C.C., that sometimes stump me . Again, I left one little hole where an elusive S should have been. MST. My 1st thought was mts, and even though I went thru the alphabet for _oldieron, I could not see it, vertically challenging.

Boomer, thanks for your humorous write up.By dour, I was laughing out loud. DH agreed with your comments as he is not a CW fan, although he is my sports encyclopedia . I did know Tony Oliva and remembered that photo.

Ya got me. I could not for the life of me get why TOYOD EATING must be a bad nutritional plan -- nor why being AT BAT should be considered a "defensive" position. But C.C. knew the correct answers, and Boomer straightened me out. I think together you have shown me a serious weakness in my solving skills, that if I should stumble upon any blend of words that just happen to fit the empty squares, why, that's what I will stick with. Not very smart. But that's why we do these things, isn't it? To discover (some of) our mental quirks and to learn and improve.I am now a little smarter.

Erred with SRO, standing room only for 63d. Instead of SLO (that's a street or road warning, you don't walk slowly on pavement If ulta is a big name in beauty products I never heard of it. Oh well....almost finished

I've never seen ULTA on the store shelves, but one of these is in what used to be Borders Books (*sigh*) here in Santa Fe, and looking for this photo, they seem to be ubiquitous nation-wide.

I knew DRACO was a cognate for dragon, and base for Draconian, but didn't know it was an actual person. He sounds disturbingly like some politicians of today. For instance, he ruled that suffrage was restricted to free men who (in our terms) owned a gun.

[Just note the intros of these links.] SSI = Supplemental Security Income, which is different from SSDI. I began collecting SSD in my 40s, which was switched to SS when I hit 65, but never SSI.

Originally I described my mood last nite as DOUR when my first licks were about mushroom CLOUDS and the likes. Be glad I deleted a few.

Happy belated birthday, Dudley. You are one of my favorites.During my home stay in Japan I slept in a room reserved for ancestor worship surrounded by mementos to them. I slept on a futon placed on tatami mats. At sushi restaurants in NJ we sit on cushions placed on tatami mats. Spell check changes tatami and futon to weird alternatives.

Two of the great Pennant race seasons. Of course the term is obsolete with double wildcards although a few years ago we had Boston and Tampa juxtaposed with the mutual denouments occurring within minutes.

Boy, I've gone on and on. I wonder if CC reads this blog. But my DW(to borrow y'all's term) announced as I was about to view the tape the next morning: "You'll be sorrryy".

Xword wise, I had to WAG SLO as ULTA was a Natick for me.

Ps. Where do you think Thai cooking as we know it came from if not ultimately places like Provence.

The great U. R.

Ps2. Speaking of Unreadsville, I better run over to Tuesday and check out any late posts.

Only got ULTA because there is one a ten minute walk from my home. But after lots of Google attempts I still cannot find the origin of the name. It looks like someone spelled ULTrA wrong. Does anyone know the origin?

Yes, the origin of John Denver's name was much easier to find!

Agree about distracted driving. I bicycle more than I drive. The anti-texting law has led to motorists pulling into the bike lane to text. Just happened to me a few minutes ago and it was quite scary. I don't even own a smart phone and enjoy being off grid most of the time!